This invention relates to a control system for printers, and more particularly to a printer control system capable of making a printer perform a special function selected from a plurality of functions, and a method of designating the functions of a printer.
There are cases where a printer provided with different key arrangements, different magnetic stripe processing functions and different character patterns for different jobs to be done is required as a printer for outputting computer-processed data. For example, there are cases where the paper feed key to be pressed to cause paper to be fed into the printer needs to be located as the extreme left key on the control key board for processing a job A, and located as the extreme right key for processing a job B. With regardto the magnetic stripe processing function of a printer, there are cases where it is necessary to set the recording density of a magnetic stripe to 100 BPI (bit per inch) for a job A, and 150 BPI for a job B. There are cases where it is necessary to print a mark representative of the kind of a job, for distinguishing the jobs A, B from each other. In such cases, according to the conventional techniques in this field, a printer having a paper feed key at the extreme left portion of a control key board, for recording a density of 100 BPI, while printing a mark representative of a job A is required for carrying out a job A, and a printer having a paper feed key at the extreme right portion of a control key board, for recording density of 150 BPI, while printing a mark representative of a job B is required for carrying out a job B.
Preparing printers having different specifications for different kinds of jobs increases the manufacturing cost. In addition, it is uneconomical to use printers of this type for the reason that the tasks which can be carried out by each printer are limited.